Texas voter ID laws mean extra step for some

A new Texas law requiring voters to show photo ID at the polls is also requiring some voters -- including the state's GOP attorney general -- to sign an affidavit if the voter's name on their ID doesn't match the name on the voter rolls. Judith Brown Dianis explains the problems with the law.

Politics

This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>>all right. so
early voting
is under way in
texas
and it turns out the gop-backed voter i.d., thanks to the new
voter identification
law. why, you're asking? well because the name on his driver's license which is an acceptable form of i.d. carries his
full name
, gregory wayne abbott, but that doesn't match the name on the state's
voter registration
list where he is
greg abbott
. state senator
wendy davis
, abbott's likely democratic opponent ran into the same problem earlier this week.

>>like many women who are vetting in
texas
today, i was required to sign an affidavit because the name on my
voter registration card
is slightly different than the name on my driver's license. my driver's license includes my
maiden name
. my
voter registration card
does not.

>>co-director of the
advancement project
. judith, it's good to have you here. as we talked about the original bill, it was drafted by republicans and it would require voters bringing a document bringing their
name change
with them to the polls. it's a bit of irony that thanks to this amendment that
wendy davis
introduced in
2011
that allows
greg abbott
to have an affidavit and still vote. is this the
collateral damage
that is going to happen because of something so restrictive not being thought out ahead of time?

>>some of it's not collateral, you know. when they passed these laws this was about manipulating the voting rules for partisan gain and, you know, we knew from the beginning that women were going to be disproportionately impacted along with
people of color
and young voters, and it's not just in
texas
. it's in other states where these e. i.d. laws were were passed over in wisconsin. these are the same people whos passed these laws in
texas
. they made it an emergency piece of legislation, the same people who are passing these laws are the same people who want to roll back
civil rights
and women's rights and for
young people
take away any opportunity to go to college. so this was part of the party's platform for making it harder to vote for particular groups.

>>so we look at your website and we have staggering statistics and eye openers for people. in
texas
, over one in ten
registered voters
lack i.d. and we have 127 counties that don't have i.d.-issuing facilities and the
justice department
that's currently suing
texas
over the strict law. so what's next in the battle and what role do you in the
advancement project
play?

>>right. first, you should know that the
department of justice
says about $1.4 million eligible voters in the
state of texas
do not have the i.d. that's required and so what we have to do now is there's litigation that's going on that's brought by the
department of justice
and a number of
civil rights
organizations, but we also have to fight on the other side which is making sure that we can start to get people the i.d. if we actually end up losing, but we've got to take these laws on because people need to understand, in pennsylvania and wisconsin, in
north carolina
where they have them there are millions of people that will not be able to participate. we need to have free, fair and accessible elections. we are supposed to be the leading democracy in this country and to pass these laws that make it unequal for people to participate is just a traves travesty.